Why c'est, not elle est ?

Question

"C'est une petite lampe de bureau en forme de phare breton. "

"C'est très joli ! "

I am reading

"C'est" vs "Il/Elle est" to say it is/she is/he is in French

Based on that, I am thinking this: we have a specific item here, not a general subject like "La science",

so we can't use 2a - c'est for general, unspecific statements and opinions

so why isn't it using : 2b "il est/elle est for statements and opinions related to specific things"

= Elle est très jolie.

Thanks Paul.

Accepted Answer

Hi Paul,
As this is a dictation exercise, you are only supposed to write down what you hear.
Although you are right to query what we have written, it is true that both 'c'est joli' ( commentaire général) and 'elle est jolie' ( cette lampe en particulier) would be acceptable in a free-form exercise, this is not the case here.
Hope this helps!